Saturday, 9 March 2013

A Childs Capacity For Compassion

I have been totally overwhelmed by my children and their ability to understand and show compassion lately, even Little Boy Blue! A bit of history, for the past 12 years I have suffered from chronic back pain due to an accident at work. Recently I have had injections in my back and hip which put me completely out of action for about a week and in increased pain. My eldest came to me and asked "Is there anything you wanted to do today mummy?" I said "No son I knew I wasn't going to be up for much so haven't planned anything." He then asked "But is there anything that you would have liked to have done today that I could do for you?" It brought a tear to my eye and I hugged him tight!

Here is Book Worm helping me sort the laundry as I lay in bed.

A few days later when I could get up and went downstairs I lay on the floor with my heat pack and Little Boy Blue came and lay down with me, hugging me and rubbing my back, he seemed to know not to be rough even without being told.

These photos are not the most flattering of me but they are some of my most precious.

One of the lessons I have learned is not to underestimate my children, their ability to learn and practice the things that they have been taught and shown when it comes to love, kindness, gentleness and compassion. We may not always recognise these traits in our children until they are shown towards us when we need them most at those 'special' times or when they are big gestures. The poor behaviour traits seem overwhelmingly evident day to day but we need to lookfor and encourage those good traits daily in the little things too.

I was also feeling a bit guilty about being unable to do much and leaving it all to my mum but then as I lay there catching up on some blog reading I came across this in one of the blogs:

Charles Spurgeon once said, “The bow cannot be always bent without fear of breaking. Repose is as needful to the mind as sleep to the body… Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength.”

When I first injured my back it seemed to consume me, the constant pain consumed my every thought but there came a point when I just had to accept it and get on as best I could, sometimes to my own detriment. I am a doer, a worker and a fighter but the other lesson I am learning is to rest and let others help when it is needed. For someone like me, some may say a control freak, this is the hardest to put into practice but I'm slowly letting go and letting others in.